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By Info-Tech Research Group
Advertising a vacant position is both an art and a science. Although job postings will always harvest a fair share of worthless replies, a little forethought and planning for job postings will elicit a greater number of relevant responses. To achieve the best results, view the entire process from a ground-up perspective.
Select Your Medium
The type of advertising medium has a lot to do with the quality of résumés garnered by the job posting.
- Online: Posting a job opportunity online is now the primary medium to attract candidates and the first place that most job seekers look. Posting openings on the organization's own site, job sites, open forums, bulletin boards, and databases is a low-cost approach with broad reach and rapid response time. However, the wide reach, and ease with which job seekers can apply, leads to a significant increase in the number of applicants. Stating specific and clear credentials helps keep the number of unqualified applicants to a minimum.
- Web 2.0 recruiting: More employers are recruiting through professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and social networking sites such as Facebook.
- Journals: True IT specialists, whether employed or not, read trade journals regularly. Advertising jobs in this domain will appeal to the job seeker's sense of professionalism. However, many journals are issued monthly, so uptake will be slow.
- Newspapers: Major publications receive wide circulation and many people read the classifieds. Small advertisements are cheaper, while display advertisements are far more eye-catching and professional looking. Consider posting ads in other sections as well (i.e. business). Newspapers are fading as an option for job advertisements as online postings become more prevalent.
Write the Ad
The intention of a job posting is to attract interest from qualified candidates, communicate essential role information, create desire for the opportunity, and provide instructions on how to respond to the posting.
- Tone: Sell the perks of the organization. Provide unique selling points of the opportunity, beyond salary and benefits, to differentiate the company and job from other postings. Write the posting as if the job opening is a product and the candidates are consumers.
- Language: Choose verbs and nouns carefully -- what kind of terminology speaks to the ideal candidate? Consider catchphrases like "Visionary CIO" or "Code Guru," but don't go wild with the thesaurus.
- Position title: Clearly defined job titles are important for screening applicants as this is one of the first things the candidate will read. For example, "Webmaster" can mean any number of things. If the position consists mainly of editorial duties, post for a "Web Editor" to attract applications from writers. If the position involves a lot of HTML coding, go with "Web Programmer." Familiar position titles are effective because candidates will be able to locate the posting when performing a job search.
- Company: Provide a brief description of the organization including the products or services it offers, the corporate culture and any training and career development programs.
- Job description: This is arguably the most difficult part of the job posting.
- State the desired credentials clearly and concisely. Leave no room for interpretation or error, in the strongest terms possible. Include the minimum number of years of experience and education required.
- Use bullet points to list the fundamental duties of the position. Candidates want to know what they will be doing on a day-to-day basis. For example, explain if the role involves individual work, team work, or a combination of both.
- Indicating the earnings range that the position pays cuts out time spent on reviewing candidates who may never accept the position, and saves them from applying to a job that doesn't match what they are looking for.
- Process to apply: Include the methods in which the organization wants to receive applications and contact information of who will receive the applications.
Repel the Duds
The actions in this note will go a long way in cutting down on redundant applications, but a few other things may be necessary to repel dud candidates:
- Keywords: The right type of candidate will find the posting if proper keywords and their related terms are used. This is especially important for Web postings. Consider having a separate keyword section at the end of the posting to increase the chances that qualified candidates will find the job posting.
- Must-Haves: Desperate, unqualified individuals take a shotgun approach to job-seeking, scattering résumés everywhere. In the posting, state assertively the minimal must-have skills that need to be met before applications will be considered.
Bottom Line
Many competent professionals have been laid off during the current IT industry shakedown, then hired elsewhere, only to be laid off again, eventually winding up in an underpaid or unfulfilling role. A truly successful job posting ferrets out those hidden stars that have become overcautious, and filters out hundreds of applications from the woefully under-qualified.
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